The Fall
by Tyfani
Summary: It all started with one question, with one suggestion, only one person seen it happening, and it was all because of him. One person influenced Harry Potter, and caused him to fall. Entranced with the dark arts, they fell together. no romance
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter, obviously._

Thursday October 3rd, 1996 - Lunch  


"Have you ever killed anything?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why would I?" Harry glanced over to his Slytherin friend with slight bemusement and confusion on his face. Aaron Foster was unique. In a mature, dark, and refreshing way compared to Hermione and Ron. He wasn't innocent. He knew what death was, and what it was like to come from a unloving family. He knew what it was like to lose someone you cared about, Harry didn't know this for sure but he could see it in the older boy's eyes. It was irrefutable that Aaron Foster knew pain, and knew it well.

"Come on Harry, not even bugs?" Aaron glanced at him with wide eyes, portraying his disbelief that someone had never killed a bug before.

"Well of course I have." He scoffed, "But bugs aren't.." He paused, thinking about what he was going to say. Bugs aren't significant? Their life doesn't mean anything?

"What? Bugs don't count?" Aaron spoke with an amused smile, "So if bugs are just pests to us and we can kill them then that means we can kill whoever annoys us?"

Harry frowned and didn't answer. In truth, that's how a lot of people thought and acted. If you didn't mean anything to them, then you were essentially dead if you got on their bad side, especially Voldemort's. So it was true in a morbid and uncompassionate way, and most humans were just uncompassionate towards bugs which is why everyone had killed a bug at some point in their life.

He sighed and stared out at the lake, he had taken the chance to escape Ron and Hermione's clutches and enjoy a picnic lunch outside with Aaron on the fairly warm and sunny day. His first two friends were unbearable at the moment, always asking him if he was alright, apologizing about bringing Sirius up, asking him to play quidditch, asking him if he'd done his school work. It was too much sometimes, and so he took refuge with Aaron's welcome company, which was increasingly more and more often.

He'd befriended Aaron on the Hogwarts Express. While silently trying to slip away from Hermione he'd entered a compartment that looked empty, but on his second glance he'd seen Aaron and had froze up, recognizing a Slytherin. They'd never really spoken before and only knew each other by name and from passing each other in the halls, or by chance encounters in the library. Aaron was just beginning his seventh year, while Harry was starting his sixth. Nevertheless Aaron had laughed at Harry's deer-in-headlights look, and told him to sit down.

First he'd been wary of Aaron's friendliness but eventually was drawn into animated conversation about his favorite subject, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Aaron was knowledgeable in a way Hermione wasn't, and wasn't afraid to list off various dark spells he knew and their counter curses or possible defenses. He'd be drawn back to his caution when the boy had sprouted off with a curse that turned your blood to ice, and the counter which was surprisingly a potion made with dragon blood components.

When he'd noticed Harry's unease, he'd sneered slightly and said, "If you don't know the offensive spells, how can you prepare a good defense?" Which was admittedly a very good point that Harry didn't respond to, although after that he'd borrowed one of Aaron's borderline Dark Arts books, just for the knowledge. _Only the knowledge_, he reminded himself.

Ron hadn't been happy when he'd entered the compartment and seen Harry speaking animatedly with a Slytherin boy. Though when Aaron had told him to shove off, and Harry hadn't spoken in Ron's defense, the redhead had left the compartment quickly, his face reminiscent of his hair. He'd laughed slightly at Ron's overreaction and prejudice. Aaron was doing a great job of keeping his mind off of Sirius and the prophecy, it was all he could do to hold onto the distraction and stay in the teen's company.

A poking in his ribs brought him out of his reverie and he blinked owlishly at the Slytherin, "Is Harry home?" Aaron said, tapping on his forehead. He blinked again and Aaron frowned, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"Sorry I got lost in thought," He finally spoke, rubbing his neck and smiling sheepishly while waving away the tinge of concern that had entered Aaron's eyes.

"Well be glad you had me to find you," The sandy haired boy mumbled while reaching for a piece of fruit, "Who knows what the wizarding world would have done if they'd lost their savior in his own mind." He mock gasped, and threw a handful of ripped grass at Harry's face.

"Well I guess we'll never know since you saved me from that horrible fate," He sighed dramatically.

"Harry?" Aaron spoke ominously, the sudden change of atmosphere scared him.

"Yes?"

"Let's go learn a spell." He sighed slightly in relief, that wasn't too bad. It just depended on which spell Aaron wanted to learn this time around.

"Which one?" He asked, the spells they'd be practicing together were increasingly getting darker, but it didn't bother him too much. After all, knowledge is power. The older boy had drilled that into him.

"Avada Kedavra." His heart jumped and he searchingly looked the other boy in the eyes, finding nothing but a challenge and determination. He glared at him for a moment, not breaking eye contact before sighing. He couldn't believe he was doing this, but the Sorting Hat _had_said that he'd do well in Slytherin.

"Fine." He whispered, feeling like he was betraying his parents in a way. He wouldn't know until later, how much that single agreement changed his life. How one curse, and a friend he'd known for only a month would be able to flip his beliefs upside down and sideways, before they settled once again.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter, obviously._

Thursday October 3rd, 1996 - Nearly Midnight

He hadn't seen Aaron for the rest of the day, but they'd made plans to meet up in the dungeons that night. Harry was to sneak out in his invisibility cloak and Aaron would wait for him outside of the Slytherin common room entrance.

Laying on his bed and staring at the ceiling he contemplated the midnight lesson he would be participating in, via Aaron. He was uneasy about using the killing curse but, shouldn't you fight fire with fire? A tickling hex sure isn't going to kill Voldemort. According to the prophesy he _had _to kill Voldemort and he was the only one that could.

The Dark Arts were bad though, or at least that's what everyone taught him. He was of the opinion that magic is magic no matter what form it is, but maybe there's a reason they're labeled Dark Arts? Maybe there's an addictive quality or something?

He sighed, frustrated with his ignorance. '_I'll ask Aaron tonight_,' he decided. He frowned then, thinking of Ron and Hermione. They were great friends in some ways but why did he feel like he was drifting away from them? It was more then just befriending the Slytherin seventh year. He didn't feel connected to them anymore, as if he was on a different level then they were.

He shrugged and decided to ponder this later, it was nearing 11:30 and he had to meet Aaron soon. Grabbing his invisibility cloak he quietly made his way out of the common room, doing his best not to wake the sleeping portrait.

It took him fifteen minutes to reach the Slytherin dungeon, holding his breath and narrowly avoiding Snape, thankfully he made it to the common room with five minutes to spare. As soon as Aaron stepped out of the room, Harry grabbed him and pulled the older student under the invisibility cloak.

"You nearly scared me Potter, but not quite." Aaron whispered quietly in a disgruntled voice.

"Yeah right, like I could scare you," He responded sarcastically, while trying to maneuver the cloak so it covered them both. "So err, where are we gonna practice?" He asked nervously.

"It's an abandoned classroom, I set it up earlier." He said dismissively, not bothering to dissuade Harry's apparent doubts. Twisting this way and that in the dank corridors, Harry was sure he was lost by now. Aaron seemed to know where they were but he was acting decidedly frigid tonight. Harry tensed, what if it'd been a set up and his newfound Slytherin friend was going to murder him in the depths of Hogwarts?

He shook his head, trying to shake the thought loose. Aaron had plenty of opportunities to kill him if he wanted. Hoping the other teen hadn't noticed his hesitation he sighed in relief as he saw a door at the end of their current hall. His assumptions were right as Aaron lead him into the room and pulled the invisibility cloak off.

He was shocked, as he soon came face to face with a sleek ebony wand with rune engravings decorating it. He was speechless and frozen with the thought that his friend had betrayed him and _was _going to kill him. He was intrigued over the runes, he hadn't recalled ever seeing this wand before. He knew for a fact that the wand he normally seen Aaron using was simple ebony with no engravings.

Suddenly the runes glowed, and with a whispered curse from Aaron he found himself petrified and glued to the wall with the most powerful spell he'd ever felt. Feeling a mixture of awe and fear he tried glaring at his former friend but found he couldn't move any of his muscles.

"That was surprisingly simple, Harry." The Slytherin sneered slightly while ridiculing the Gryffindor. Stalking up to the petrified sixth year, he whispered in a menacing voice while holding his wand at his side.

"Do you have any idea what could happen to you right now? You Gryffindors and your stupidity!" He ranted, throwing his arms up in anger. Wrapping a hand around Harry's throat with crazed eyes he squeezed slightly and continued, " I could kill you right now if I wanted, slowly wring the life out of you and suffocate the poor precious_Gryffindor _boy-who-lived." Confusion showed clearly on Harry's face as he fought between fear and anger at Slytherin's words.

"Do you know what the Dark Arts does to people, Potter?" He paused and took a deep breath, as if reigning in his anger.

"I doubt you know. So I guess it's up to me to inform the baby ickle Potter." He spat, somewhat reminiscent of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"The moment you use an Avada Kedavra, it's imprinted in your soul, body, and mind. You'll never forget the rush you get, the power trip from playing god with another person's life. The classification of a dark spell, is a spell that gives you an emotional response that also works off of negative impulses." He took a deep breath and continued, as if he'd gone into librarian mode.

"For example, a cheering charm that makes you happy isn't a dark spell. But using the negative energy required to cast the killing curse, and then receiving the power trip, elation, satisfaction, and then the urge to cast the curse again is what classifies it as a dark spell. The reason it's an unforgivable is because it's addictive, the moment you cast one you want to do it again, and again, and again. You wouldn't get the same response if you used a cutting charm to decapitate someone's head." He growled slightly while looking Harry directly in eyes, his own becoming increasingly feral.

"The stupidity you displayed by coming down here to practice an Avada Kedavra astounds me. Neither of us could manage one at the moment and if we did, we'd end up off our rockers and in Azkaban faster then we can say abracadabra." Pausing in his rant, he conjured up a table and two chairs, disregarding the fact that he'd done extremely advanced magic in front of the boy-who-lived.

Sitting down and sighing, he rubbed his forehead and then looked forlornly at his friend. Potter needed work, he'd been in the Gryffindor clutches for far too long. Staring once again at the green eyed menace he continued his impromptu speech.

"Then also the stupidity in not keeping your guard up, especially around a Slytherin you've only known for a month. The reputations we have, while sometimes unfounded, are there for a reason." Releasing the boy from the spells he waited in silence for the boy to respond to what he'd told him.

"I can't believe you!" Harry began shouting, "You could have easily just told me that instead of threatening me and scaring the shit out of me." He sneered.

"But who knows, maybe you really are just a slimy sneaky Slytherin and I shouldn't trust you at all." With that Harry instantly found himself on the ground, pinned by an enraged Slytherin and was suddenly doubting his choice of words. Aaron once again was threatening to choke him to death, the slight pressure on his windpipe made it somewhat difficult to breath and he suddenly felt cowed and ashamed at what he'd said.

"You dumb, idiotic, fool Gryffindor!" Aaron growled out, looking even more incensed then he had during his previous rant.

"Don't you see what I'm offering you? I'm offering you the chance to learn and study the most complex and powerful spells known to wizard kind, from the most accomplished student in Hogwarts history!" He struggled as more pressure was applied to his throat.

"You need work Potter, you need refinement. You need to act like the Slytherin that I know is buried deep inside of that idiotic brain. You need to kill Voldemort, and I will make sure that he's dead if it's the last thing I do on Earth." Aaron whispered in the most dangerous voice that Harry had ever heard. Aaron had some vendetta against the Dark Lord, and that was interesting in it's own right.

Aaron stood and as he was trying to stand himself, Aaron pushed him back to the ground and with a final glare stalked out of the class room. Blinking dazedly, Harry stumbled and followed him, shouting for Aaron to stop and as he sprinted into the hallway he found no trace of the Slytherin, it was as if he'd vanished into thin air.


End file.
